Thursday, March 1, 2012

Phillies beat writer Ryan Lawrence’s method differs slightly from his peers, and this is evidenced most notably by his decision to focus in-depth on each component of the buffet dinner he ate in the press box on the night of Halladay’s third perfect game of the 2012 season.Quite the character, Lawrence’s tone is captured perfectly by his book’s dedication: “This book is dedicated to ZWR – now maybe I can get that shirt, donkey?! LOLOLOL. But for real, I wear a large, American Apparel please.”

Meech’s haunting meditation on Roy Halladay as Christ figure to a post 9-11, war wary and economically downtrodden homeland was approaching completion in late-2012. The author was rumored to have been hard at work on his opus for years, in the seclusion of Philadelphia’s fabled “Jetro” cash and carry parking lot

Unfortunately for this Salinger figure's fans, however, the project soon ran out of funding under mysterious circumstances. Despite the author’s popularity and a built-in audience’s ravenous demand for the product, the book never made it to press. I obtained my copy through back-alley connections that cannot be revealed.

A young and “fresh” reporter, Murphy is able to meld his affable ways with the impact of the subject matter. His tone is crisp and his vocabulary sprawling, yet less-pointed at times than counterparts found in the research literature. One could say that the author is, in fact, the rebel in question. It is admittedly odd how often he refers to himself and personal grooming in great detail considering that it’s not pertinent to the story at hand.

Rovell, D. (2013). Halladay’s Dollars per Pitch per Strike per Minute per Second; The Business of Being an Ace. New York: LCD Publishing.

Frankly, I don’t understand the author’s fascination with simply using the protagonist’s salary as the numerator in a ceaseless series of inane calculations. This made no sense to me and was utterly useless in my studies. Clearly, Rovell is not a “Division Champ” (Get it?).

The most read book of any (and by far the most irreverent) in the field, famed-blogger Scott’s account is littered throughout with phallic imagery, alcoholic references and in-jokes for the TMZ-crowd. Yet somehow despite its banality, the work resonates deeply. It’s Hard Now outsold all other books published on the subject matter, and communes the season’s tale with both stunning starkness and impenetrable vagueness. In the words of the author, “it spits truth that the haters don’t want to hear about.”